[NoodleGTS]

Hi all,

Doing a gaming build for my buddy and wanted to see if you guys have any suggestions.

His budget is $850 to $950. He already has a Corsair 650w PSU and an optical drive. Also I'm giving him extra RAM I have. So he doesn't need to buy those.

He will NOT be doing any overclocking at all. I chose the case because he has pets and NEEDS dust filters on every intake.. his old computer literally stopped working because cat hair blocked his CPU fan completely (I'm also advising him to clean his computer more often...)

How is this? Any suggestions? RAM will be patriot DDR3 dual channel (or Kingston, have both).

It's mostly going to be for gaming.. StarCraft 2, Hearthstone, other Steam games. Maybe Titanfall and such.

nickbuild.jpg 210k .jpg file

 

[BiG StroOnZ]

Well, if he's not overclocking then two suggestions.

Drop down to a ASRock B85 Pro4 motherboard. No need for a Z87 platform. If there's another $50 available. I would suggest dropping the 4570 for $200 and going to a Xeon E3-1230V3 for $250. Basically you get 4770 performance for $250. This will allow him to have 4 extra threads available whenever needed and there are games coming out that take advantage of those. For someone who's not overclocking, the Xeon 1230V3 is the best value because it gives you HT support and 8MB L3 Cache.

Also, as far as GTX 770's go realize that we are coming to the end of the lifespan of the 760 and 770, meaning not too far from now 2GB of VRAM is going to become an issue for 1080p gaming. As in, not enough. Even Titanfall uses more than 2GB of VRAM right now. Might want to consider a 4GB card that allows for an SLI expansion in the future. Meaning a 4GB card would allow you to smoothly upgrade to a second card. Whereas if you had a 2GB card, you could upgrade it but you are still going to be 2GB VRAM limited. It's a wise maneuver to be made when a 4GB card can be had for similar price as a 2GB card: PNY GTX 770 XLR8 Enthusiast Edition 4GB

 

[PontiacGTX]

Amd build
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3j3E3
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3j3E3/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3j3E3/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($89.99 @ Micro Center)
Storage: A-Data Premier Pro SP900 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 290 4GB Video Card ($439.99 @ Amazon)
Case: NZXT Source 530 ATX Full Tower Case ($99.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec HCG M 850W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($119.20 @ Amazon)
Total: $1019.12
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-30 12:05 EDT-0400)

Heatsink 50usd
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=FAN-TS140P

Intel build 1
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3j3WP
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3j3WP/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3j3WP/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($227.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($109.99 @ Micro Center)
Storage: Crucial M500 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: VisionTek Radeon R9 280X 3GB Video Card ($309.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 530 ATX Full Tower Case ($99.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $927.92
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-30 12:15 EDT-0400)

Heatsink 50usd
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=FAN-TS140P

Intel build 2
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3j459
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3j459/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3j459/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($227.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($109.99 @ Micro Center)
Storage: Crucial M500 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: PNY GeForce GTX 770 4GB Video Card ($373.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: NZXT Source 530 ATX Full Tower Case ($99.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $991.92
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-30 12:19 EDT-0400)

Advantages of r9 290 over 770gtx
21% more performance
No problems when the vram usage gets over 3.4gb +/-
Enough gpu power to use 4gb at any res(if the games needs it)
About 4x/3.5x higher gpgpu performance via opencl
Comes with bf4 for free(xfx)
Mantle
Competes with 780gtx
512bus

Disadvantage
Higher power consumption than a 770gtx

R9 280x over 770gtx
About 3x higher gpgpu performance(via opencl)
Mantle
Lower price than the 770gtx

Disadvantage
Noise
1gb less physical vram
A bit higher power comsption

770gtx over r9s
Cuda
G-sync
1gb more vram than the 280x
Shadowplay

PD.shadowplay can be compared to dxtory,action or bandicam which can be used on amd